The Booster cover art

The Booster

How Ed Martin, the Fab Five and the Ballers from the Hood Exposed the Hypocrisy of a Billion-Dollar Industry

Preview

Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Booster

By: Carl Martin
Narrated by: Tekky Andrew-Jaja Carl Martin Erica Edwards Tina McNeal O'Brien & Tim Downey
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $22.99

Buy Now for $22.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.
Cancel

About this listen

Rolls of Hundred Dollar Bills.... Custom Jewelry.... Exquisite Gifts.... Designer Clothes....
Where did all that money come from?
And where did it go?
How and why did an auto-plant electrician dole out a fortune to teenage kids and their families?
If you were Eddie L. Martin...if you got thrills from excellence in basketball...if you loved hanging with some of the game’s greatest young stars - you found a way.
They called you Big Ed, Uncle Eddie, the man with the 50-dollar handshake...the Super Booster.
You were the stylish money-man to budding superstar athletes. And more than that. You were there with a handout and a hand up for the kids from broken families who had no heat in the house, no food in the fridge.

In Carl Martin’s take-no-prisoners examination of big-time college basketball and the money machine it has become, he peels back the veneer. Now for the first time the soft underbelly of big-time college hoops is probed by someone who has actually been there, done that. Martin tells the full and true story of what drove his father’s obsession to open his heart and his wallet to those kids.

What really happened before and after the roll-over accident that triggered an FBI investigation of the University of Michigan’s Fab Five and triggered a nationwide scandal? That question and many other mysteries are resolved in these compelling pages.

The Booster goes well beyond the Fab Five fallout to lay bare the exploitation of black athletes by forces far bigger and more sinister than an over-generous booster. Author Martin exposes the double standard that bars kids from even a meager share of the billions they generate for elite college athletic programs, the NCAA, and sports apparel companies.

It is a revealing and riveting story on many levels, powerfully told.

©2018 Men For Others, LLC (P)2019 Men For Others, LLS
Basketball Heartfelt

What listeners say about The Booster

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.